September Buzz

Sean Visintainer - 09/06/18

September success and less crowds

Lots of excited anglers in the shop lately. With cooler temps and clearer skies folks are stoked to be out on the water. A bonus for September is the infamous tuber hatch is officially over on all local rivers, WOOHOO! The fish have been very cooperative as well all around the region. The usual haunts like the Spokane, St. Joe, and NF Coeur d'Alene are all very productive and even some decent reports on the Clark Fork. Mike was on the NF Coeur d'Alene and reported very good fishing in the middle stretches. He said streamer fishing was his go-to method of choice and sliding unweighted streamers on sink-tips through skinny slots along the banks where he could find them locked into some larger CDA cutts. Another good friend Ryan B. reported he had good consistent fishing every where he went up there, noting that fishing further off the road was better and the dry fly fishing was good even for some larger cutthroat.

While fall hatches are still not here yet the late summer patterns of attractors and terrestrials are going strong. We probably won't see a change in this until there is a notable shift in the weather. Mike did say he saw one October caddis buzzing around but it's still a couple weeks out before the October caddis and mahogany duns really get going. For now still plan on the hopper, ants, beetles, small attractors and chernobyls. Dropping a bead head pattern off the the hopper or another smaller dry like an ant is a must-do in my opinion. Sometimes the fish are more apt to eat the smaller bug after a season of chubbies and larger foam bugs floating by them.

Good reports from the guide crew on the Spokane River as of late. The staff has been doing the dry / dropper game with good success. The low flows of summer make floating a large hopper or chernobyl with 2-3' dropper below it ideal for picking through fast riffles and pockets. Flows have started to bump slightly as they release water from lake Coeur d'Alene in preparation for winter lake levels. Streamer fishing has picked up for the trout spey crowd and if it were me I would trail a soft hackle behind it to imitate the fall caddis that have been hatching in the evenings.

September is a great month for trout angling in our area. Get out there and enjoy some success on the less crowded waters.